More importantly, however, is the value-added benefit that busy people like me appreciate. A good box insert can help you organise, store, and setup a game in a lot less time. It can make packing the game away afterwards quicker too. “Do those few minutes really matter?”, you might be asking yourself. The answer to that question is a resounding “Yes”. So much Yes, in fact, that I wrote a whole article about the importance of good organisation.

Out of sorts

What then, if your box doesn’t come with a good insert? What if it comes with no insert at all? There are three options: One, do nothing and just sift through baggie hell each time. Two, make your own insert. I’ve done this, with foamcore, dressmakers pins, PVA glue, and hours of my life I’ll never get back. The third – and by far most sensible option – is to buy a third party insert.

There are loads available, made of materials like plastics and wood, but they can be very expensive. In the interest of being a cheapskate, my preferred option is the foamboard offerings from Folded Space, which better suit my wallet.

I’ve bought my own before, and was very pleased with the results. When they offered to send me a few more to try, I jumped at the chance, especially as they were for games I love, but have no insert for. Games like The Lost Ruins of Arnak, Root, and Hallertau. The latter especially, has an absolute heck-ton of pieces, so I was excited to see what difference an insert could make.

A sticky situation

Folded Space inserts come as sheets of pre-cut foamboard, with instructions for assembly on a sheet. The only things you need that don’t come in the box are PVA glue and patience. I found the instructions really easy to follow, and there are videos on their website if you really get stuck (no pun intended). Pop the pieces out, make sure you can fit them together, then add a small layer of PVA on the edges and stick everything in place.

Unfortunately, my cutting-and-sticking skills peaked when I was five years old. Good grief, can I make a mess with PVA glue? Luckily for me, it dries transparent, so the hours I spent looking like a sticky gorilla were not in vain. All joking aside, the folded space inserts are really easy to put together. The only time you might run into trouble is when you have small pieces to stick, and it can be a little awkward to get them to sit in-place while you wait for the glue to go off.

They do take a while to put together. It’s one of those tasks best suited for when the kids have gone to bed. Stick something on the telly, have a glass of wine, and make some little boxes. At first it’s very exciting, but by the time you’re onto your umpteenth box, it becomes a nearly mindless job, like peeling Brussels sprouts the night before Christmas.

Box clever

The big question that remains, I guess, is “Are they any good?”. As it happens, yes, they’re very good. You can tell that a LOT of thought has been put into the layout and storage choices. Take the Hallertau insert, for example. There are so many different wooden resources you need for the game, and the insert now means I have little organiser trays that I can lift straight out of the box, play with, then drop back in afterwards. No baggies, no fuss.

The Lost Ruins of Arnak is another example of clever planning. The trays you build are stacked three-high in some places, but in one corner of the box there’s a huge spacer, just sat there, blocking out space. The note on the instructions informs me that it’s space for the (almost inevitable) expansions. Nice.

But maybe the best, most wonderful thing that the Folded Space inserts do is something that my home-made Maracaibo insert didn’t. They sit flush to the lid of the box. This means you can put everything away, then store them vertically on your shelves! Hoorah! I know there’s a whole sub-culture of people who will only ever store games horizontally on Ikea’s Kallax units, but for those of us in the real world, it’s a fantastic thing to be able to slide a box out like a book, open it, and find everything where you left it.

Final thoughts

Folded Space’s inserts are great. They won’t break the bank, coming in at the £15-25 range, and although they’re not the most beautiful of inserts, they’re extremely practical. Sturdy, hard-wearing, precision cut, and readily available. Being made of a kind of foamboard, they’re also extremely light, which is great news for your shelves, and the handles of any bags you use to transport your games.

If, like me, you have great big strangler’s hands, you might need a child to help you with the gluing, as it can be fiddly. Folded Space sent me a few to try, and to tell you about, but in all honesty, they’re great. I’ll continue to buy them for games I play a lot that really need an insert, because they’re cheap, well-made, and do what they’re meant to.

Nice.

Review samples kindly sent by Folded Space. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

The post Folded Space Inserts Review appeared first on Punchboard.

In this post I’m taking a look at some of the under-appreciated heroes of game nights: the bits and pieces that keep people like me tidy, and help make the most of our precious leisure time. Things which sometimes mean the difference between a game coming off the shelf, or staying there like a wallflower at a dance, watching on while others have all the fun.

In praise of the humble box insert

People love a good box insert. They make the game’s contents look nice, they are incredibly satisfying to put things away at the end of the game, but most importantly they make the game setup much quicker. Does that really matter? Heck yes, it does! Those of you who enjoy a game with a lot of pieces, think about that game for a moment. Think about clearing the table, opening the box, and then looking down at a pile of baggies big enough to get you pulled aside at an airport.

I like heavy Euro games, and the sheer number of different types of tokens and pieces in some of them is genuinely daunting. Anachrony is an outstanding game, but I don’t play it as often as I want to, because opening and organising everything takes me ages. I don’t have much free time, and I’ll end up spending a significant portion of it just setting the game up to play. How ridiculous is that?

At the opposite end of the scale, I don’t mind choosing Euphoria (review here), even with its expansion included, even though it’s got tons of dice and components. The included insert from GameTrayz makes things so easy to find and setup, and then to pack away afterwards. A place for everything, and everything in its place, as the saying goes. What happens when your game isn’t like PARKS, or Jamaica though, and doesn’t come with a custom-made insert?

Do-it-yourself

The first thing you can try is to make an insert for yourself. I’ve done this with different methods, and varying levels of success. Some people love working with foamcore to create inserts, and I had a go at it myself. I bought the knives, board, steel rulers, dress-making pins and enough PVA glue to stick an elephant to the ceiling. I designed and made an insert for Maracaibo, and while it works, there was so much faffing around, and I ended up covered in more glue than my eight-year-old would have. The better option, if you have access to it, is 3D printing.

3D printing is very precise, but it’s pretty slow going. I printed inserts for Nusfjord and Anno 1800, and they took me days each. Literally days of my poor printer whirring its way through the filament. The end results are great though, and Nusfjord now has player boxes which you can lift out and drop on the table, with everything a player needs. Is it worth doing? It depends on your levels of patience and frustration I suppose. The Anno 1800 insert was almost a necessity for me, as sorting and setting up 44 individual piles of tiles, on top of the cards and resources, takes an age. As a result, I’ll certainly play it more than I might have done otherwise.

And there’s the rub. Straight away I’m saying that I’ll play a game I really enjoy more, just because setting it up is now easier, and less time-consuming. That’s just mad.

Off-the-shelf

The industry recognises the desire for a good insert, so several companies have stepped-up and produce insert kits that you can buy and assemble at home. The most famous of these are the Folded Space inserts. The material they’re made out of is very similar to foamcore, but thicker, and precision cut. All you need to assemble them is some PVA glue, and in my case, a child to supervise. Another great option is e-Raptor, who make their inserts from a harder material, but use interlocking pieces and require no glue. They’re more expensive, but really well-made.

If you’ve never used a box insert like one of these before, you might be sceptical. Spending money on a game you’ve already paid for, just to organise it? That’s money that could be better spent on new games, surely? If this sounds like you, and if you’ve ever felt reluctance to play one of your games just because you know how much time and effort it’s going to take before you even play, then I urge you to try one.

So, you’ve got your game all sorted out and easier to setup and pack away, but what else can you do to make your experience better, and make the most of your time?

Hold me closer

How many times has a rule book told you to make piles of tokens or resources next to the board? Piles of cardboard tokens and wooden pieces strewn over what table space is left, after your cardboard monstrosity claims as much as it can. How many times have those piles spread out, mixed together, or made a bid for freedom, over the edge of the table?

Many of you may already use something as a bits holder, but I’ve played games with a lot of people who have never tried it. It’s such a simple thing to do, and you don’t have to spend any money to do it. If you do buy something you can do it on a budget. Some of the most popular options I’ve seen are silicone muffin cases, and the little glass pots that those Gü desserts come in. How good is that? Chocolate pudding, a token holder, and doing your part of the environment by re-using the pots. That’s my excuse anyway.

I have some 3D printed trays which stack together for storage, and have spouts which help with taking pieces, and for tipping pieces into their bags. Plenty of Etsy shops sell these, and if you have access to a 3D printer you can get the files for it for free, here.

It’s maybe a small thing, but once again, it’s something which makes the whole experience better. Nothing falls to the floor, you don’t reach for a brick and pick up wood, and perhaps most importantly, packing the game away is easier. Open a baggy, tip the pot into it, seal it up.

“Come on now Adam, isn’t this a bit over the top? Saving a few seconds putting things in a bag?”. I don’t think so.

Greater than the sum of its parts

If you’re lucky enough to have all the free time you want, maybe these issues don’t affect you. For me, however, all of these small things have a combined effect that’s really valuable. On a normal day I might have a couple of hours free in the evening to play something. I know how long each game takes to play, so when I’m thinking of playing something that’s going to take 90-120 minutes, every minute I claw back from setting up and packing away is precious.

I know that Anno 1800 takes me at least 15 minutes to setup if I have everything in baggies. When I sit down at the end of a long day of work and being dad, that’s demoralising. Now that I’ve printed this amazing insert though, I can go from it being on the shelf, to being ready to play in under five minutes. When I play Terraforming Mars I use my bits trays for the abundance of cubes it comes with, and bagging them up afterwards takes literally seconds. If I go along to games night with my group, that setup and tear-down time can mean the difference between getting to play another small game that night, or not.

In some of these cases we’re talking about small margins, I know, but sometimes they matter. Our leisure time is fiercely fought-for, with TV, streaming services, video games, social media and any number of other hobbies all vying for our attention. I love board games, I’m passionate about the benefits and fun they provide people with, and anything that helps someone choose to play one instead of stagnating in front of the TV, is a good thing.

Don’t get me wrong, we need that downtime too sometimes, but as an advocate for the mental and social benefits a board game delivers, I want to help you make the most of your time around a table. Get organised, and see if it helps you too.

The post Sort Your Life Out appeared first on Punchboard.